Why doesn't my function work as a function but the code itself does when replaced with the function? (Python)

Question

I’m trying to get my number-guessing game to work and I got it but I just don’t understand why it doesn’t work, when I have my guess input as a function. Here is the original code where it doesn’t work

import random

targetMin = int(input("Enter your range's minimum number: "))
targetMax = int(input("Enter your range's maximum number: "))
targetNum = int(random.randint(targetMin, targetMax))

def takeGuess():
    guess = int(input("Enter your guess: "))
    return guess

def startGame():
    guess = 0
    while guess != targetNum:
        takeGuess()
        if guess > targetNum:
            print("You guessed too high, guess again!")
        elif guess < targetNum:
            print("You guessed too low, guess again!")
        elif guess == targetNum:    
            print("You win the game!")
            break

startGame()

The code works perfectly when I replace takeGuess in startGame function with the guess input code.

Here it’s working, but I am confused why my first version doesn’t work. I did some research and it’s probably a return problem but I just couldn’t figure out the syntax. Sorry.

import random

targetMin = int(input("Enter your range's minimum number: "))
targetMax = int(input("Enter your range's maximum number: "))
targetNum = int(random.randint(targetMin, targetMax))

def startGame():
    guess = 0
    while guess != targetNum:
        guess = int(input("Enter your guess: "))
        if guess > targetNum:
            print("You guessed too high, guess again!")
        elif guess < targetNum:
            print("You guessed too low, guess again!")
        elif guess == targetNum:    
            print("You win the game!")
            break

startGame()

Asked By: iwy

||

Source

Answer 1

You are calling takeGuess(), and takeGuess() is returning a value, but you aren’t doing anything with the result. To make it work, you need to store the result of takeGuess() in guess. Like this:

import random

targetMin = int(input("Enter your range's minimum number: "))
targetMax = int(input("Enter your range's maximum number: "))
targetNum = int(random.randint(targetMin, targetMax))


def takeGuess():
    guess = int(input("Enter your guess: "))
    return guess


def startGame():
    guess = 0
    while guess != targetNum:
        guess = takeGuess()
        if guess > targetNum:
            print("You guessed too high, guess again!")
        elif guess < targetNum:
            print("You guessed too low, guess again!")
        elif guess == targetNum:    
            print("You win the game!")
            break


startGame()

Just because you return a variable doesn’t mean the caller will be able to access it. I think this is what is throwing you off. For simplicity, your takeGuess() function can be rewritten as this:

def takeGuess():
    return int(input("Enter your guess: "))

Answered By: Michael M.

Why doesn't my function work as a function but the code itself does when replaced with the function? (Python)

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